Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

[cjareck]

Anyway, car got returned to the dealer, so it’s back to podcasts for me. Hard to justify the expense of Satellite radio when I do have so much online access to French content. Also, they don’t seem to have a French talk radio station anymore, just French music, which is fun, but I need to hear conversations too!

But there are at least two apps that you can install o a smartphone (I have Android, but surely iOS has something similar): TuneIn Radio and Radio Garden. The last one also has a Website allowing to listen to radio online.

[Ani]

YouTube music has a radio feature, and you can use it with different artists to change the style of music.. is not quite the same but it's pretty good.

[Lawyer&Mom]

Anyway, car got returned to the dealer, so it’s back to podcasts for me. Hard to justify the expense of Satellite radio when I do have so much online access to French content. Also, they don’t seem to have a French talk radio station anymore, just French music, which is fun, but I need to hear conversations too!

But there are at least two apps that you can install o a smartphone (I have Android, but surely iOS has something similar): TuneIn Radio and Radio Garden. The last one also has a Website allowing to listen to radio online.

We have a Sonos system with TuneIn built in! I have *all* the radio options when I’m at home. Satellite radio just let me listen to live French radio in the car, instead of a previously downloaded podcast. (I’m not going to stream radio with my phone in the car! My data plan would explode!)

[Lawyer&Mom]

I’ve been deep into watching TV the last few weeks. (This is cyclical and seems to always happen in the winter. Summer is for reading!) I’ve noticed leaps and bounds in my listening comprehension as I quickly pound through seasons 5 and 6 of ER. Binging is good!

I know I’ve discussed it before, but let me again sing the praises of ER for language learning: 1) There is so much of it. 15 seasons! Almost 250 hours! If you like it, you are set! 2) All they do is talk! Seriously! Doctors and nurses and medics and patients, constantly constantly talking with each other. Great for conversational language. 3) It’s a great mix of predictable and unpredictable. Most of the scenes are in the ER, and this predictable context makes it easier to follow the language. But there are always new and dramatic emergencies to keep things interesting. 4) The French dub is really good. I still can’t believe how well they matched all the voices. 5) Ultimately, it’s just a really well done show, and compelling content is always the best for language learning!

[Skynet]

I know I’ve discussed it before, but let me again sing the praises of ER for language learning...

This is a great idea! I can imagine watching ER, St. Elsewhere and Grey's Anatomy in German and French. Thank-you for your superb suggestion!

[Cèid Donn]

How are you watching ER? I haven't seen it available on any streaming services here in the US, let alone a version with French dubbing.

[Lawyer&Mom]

How are you watching ER? I haven't seen it available on any streaming services here in the US, let alone a version with French dubbing.

It does stream on Hulu, but that’s in English. I bought the DVD boxed set on Amazon.fr for approximately €70. Pretty decent price for about 250 hours of French!

[rdearman]

You can watch all the various Star Trek episodes on Netflix. They average 6 seasons per series and I calculated it as 397 hours, not including the new Discovery series. Discovery would take it over 400+ hours.

[Jean-Luc]

Free stuff for learning Russian:

https://www.russianpod101.com

With videos: http://www.russianforfree.com
Review: https://labdeslangues.blog/2017/12/05/l ... n-presque/

Great free grammar here (but beware of NSA with this commies propaganda website)
http://learnrussian.rt.com

[Lawyer&Mom]

So back when I last lived in Europe, Barcelona was the new hip urban destination. Now, 15 years later, Barcelona has been well and truly discovered, and Lisbon seems to have some of the spotlight. It looks like a gorgeous city, so I decided to watch a local newscast to assess how accessible Portuguese would be to a tourist who understands a lot of French and a bit of Spanish. I mean, how bad could it be? I can read it well enough, it will just sound like strange Spanish, right?

Wrong. So wrong. I was hilariously unprepared for European Portuguese. It’s just so not what I expected. It’s sounds like someone mixed French and German. The internet thinks it sounds like Russian. I found a great video that explains this Lusso-Slavic connection.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pik2R46xobA

He also has a video about why Modern Greek sounds like Spanish that blew my mind.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMqoHPJzac

(Turns out I had absolutely no idea what Modern Greek sounds like!)